Web Accessibility Compliance Plan Being Developed

Web Accessibility Compliance Plan Being Developed

A major effort is underway to improve Web accessibility for faculty, staff, students and visitors with disabilities, and to ensure that all UNH resources are available to everyone.

As part of the university’s strong commitment to assuring all users can access the UNH web pages, the consulting firm SSB Bart ( https://www.ssbbartgroup.com/) has been hired to assist in crafting an accessibility plan.

SSB Bart will interview community members, assist with the prioritization of websites, create a pilot project, help to evaluate tools, and draw up an ongoing strategy for maintaining accessibility.

“With the help of the SSB Bart Group, UNH is setting the stage to remove barriers in our digital environment that are experienced by people with disabilities. This initiative, that will eventually extend to all of our web-based services, programs and activities, is another big step in supporting a diverse and inclusive campus and will require the same broad-based energy and commitment that we have for decades applied to barrier removal in our physical environment,” says Wendy Beckwith, EEO/ADA compliance officer with the Affirmative Action and Equity Office.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, amended in 2008, Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974, and regulations developed by federal enforcement agencies all require public entities to provide equal access to services, programs and activities.

"Maintaining Web accessibility is an ongoing process. It is not enough to ‘fix our site’ once,” says Bridget Finnegan, director of New and Emerging Media. “Every time we update our site we need to be mindful of how to make sure we are communicating with all of our users. It's really about awareness building."